Sources:  

• Irish Times, Thursday 20 February 2025
• Institute of Directors
• Linkedin

​Legend Trading Europe, a Dublin-based fintech that helps businesses move money between traditional payment systems and digital assets, has secured €3.3 million to expand its Irish operations.
 
The firm, a subsidiary of US-regulated cryptocurrency trading platform Legend Trading, is to use the financing in part to pursue an e-money licence from the Central Bank of Ireland in a move that will allow it to offer both fiat and stablecoin payment services from a single regulated entity.
 
Legend has been supervised by the Central Bank of Ireland since 2024 and licensed by the regulator under the EU's MiCA crypto rules since late last year.

​Speaking to the Business Post, Ciaran O'Hare, the firm's chief executive, said the e-money licence application builds on that existing regulatory foundation and "reinforces Ireland's role as the company's European headquarters."

"We employ 12 people here at the moment working across risk, compliance, AML (anti-money laundering) and finance, and a very strong board that includes Peter Oakes and Valerie Lyons," said O'Hare.

He said the company intends to expand its compliance, risk and engineering teams in Dublin.
"I expect that we will double headcount or possibly even triple it over the next two years as we're looking at how we might move some functions that currently sit in the US over here so that we are fully resourced in every department," O'Hare said.

Legend's parent is a global crypto infrastructure firm providing fiat–crypto and crypto–fiat rails to retail, institutional clients, high-net worth individuals, exchanges, wallets, and fintechs. Legend has facilitated tens of billions of dollars in transactions since it was founded six years ago and is used by more than 1,000 institutional traders.

O'Hare said combining electronic money and digital asset services under a single regulated entity would simplify how businesses move between fiat and digital assets.

"We're seeing growing demand from businesses that want access to both traditional payment infrastructure and stablecoin settlement within a regulated framework. Our focus is building that infrastructure within a regulated Irish entity under the supervision of the Central Bank of Ireland," he said.

Hao Chen, founder of Legend Trading, said that having spent the last seven years building liquidity and trading infrastructure for digital assets, the next stage is "enabling businesses to access payments, treasury and settlement services that bridge traditional financial systems and digital asset networks."
​
"Europe is becoming one of the most important markets for that evolution," he said.

Source: Business Post, Charlie Taylor "Legend Trading secures €3m to boost Dublin operations" 13 June 2026

By Peter Oakes, Founder Fintech Ireland.

​As chair of two MiCAR firms authorised in the EU, I find this news today about Irish banks joining a stablecoin project very interesting. Wearing my INED hat at two EU emoney firms, I can understand the passion to reduce friction and costs in payments. Lots to unpack here for sure!

AIB announces it has joined stablecoin project Qivalis. The other Irish bank that has joined the project is Bank of Ireland.

The supervisory board of Qivalis is chaired by my former Financial Conduct Authority (then FSA) boss Sir Howard Davies who also served as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and is a former Chair of RBS/NatWest

Qivalis B.V., registered with the Dutch Trade Register under number 98235680. Subject to receiving regulatory approval, is targeting a market launch in the second half of 2026. It is a consortium of 37 leading European banks established to issue a regulated, euro-denominated compliant stablecoin that will enable seamless, efficient and secure payments and settlements within Europe and globally.

AIB is one of 25 new members joining today (20 May 2026) the existing 12 banks already in the consortium as part of a major expansion.

Qivalis:
➡️ desires on-chain ecosystem that positions a euro-denominated stablecoin as a global benchmark for digital finance.
➡️ seeks to enable the European finance sector to expand its digital infrastructure and build the future of European payments and settlements.
➡️ expects the euro stablecoin to be fully compliant with the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (#MiCAR) regulation.

AIB’s collaboration is to further and strengthen its our ability to deliver payments innovation to its clients.
Geraldine Casey, Managing Director Retail Banking at AIB said: “We are investing in this consortium because we believe Europe needs trusted, regulated innovation in payments and settlement... This investment aligns with that focus, the rapid transformation in payments and the growing development of blockchain and digital asset initiatives.”

AIB claims that it invests around €400 million each year to become a digitally progressive bank.

Meanwhile Billy O'Connell, Chief Strategy Officer at Bank of Ireland, said that through this initiative, Bank of Ireland is advancing innovation to deliver real benefits for customers, strengthen Europe’s financial infrastructure, and support the responsible development of digital money ...In doing so, we are helping to shape the future of how money moves, while supporting our ambition of offering unrivalled financial choice - now and for generations to come,"

Read more at: 

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peteroakes_stablecoin-micar-activity-7462835989720375296-P3ev
  
• https://qivalis.eu/
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aibireland_aib-is-pleased-to-be-joining-qivalis-a-consortium-activity-7462761080545796096-C_0_
• https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2026/0520/1574265-bank-of-ireland-joins-euro-stablecoin-initiative/

Fintech Ireland caught up with leading Irish fintech startup FacePOS's James Hannigan (CEO) and Paddy Bolger (CFO) for a couple of post St Paddy Day pints at Doheny & Nesbitt in Dublin last night (Wednesday 18th March 2026).  We and Fintech UK are very proud to have supported FacePOS on its journey thus far and we look forward to continuing to do so.

This morning, Thursday 20th March 2026, James was interviewed in a short, concise and punchy interview on the future of payments and in particular a future without card schemes.

James was introduced by the interviewer as "My next guest is developing a technology that uses your face to make payments, which crucially bypasses the big American card payment systems such as MasterCard or Visa."

The Sligo-based FacePOS has been accepted into the Central Bank of Ireland's Sandbox scheme as part of FacePOS's mission to be accepted by the banks and retailers.

James covered, among many other topics:

• how FacePOS has created a platform that allows both consumers and businesses to have FacePOS on their app and in their banking app.  This allows the customer to walk in, tap their phone using NFC to perform a customer bank account to merchant bank account transaction.
• it's all about verification of paying, knowing who you're paying, knowing the amount of money you're paying to the business.
• it's very, very important for Europe to have sovereignty in payments.
• FacePOS will be showcasing further its app during the Central Bank of Ireland event on 25 June 2026.